TOWN OF CATON. 



229 



JOHN CARTER 

 was born in Ithaca, Tompkins Co., N. Y., Jan. 26, 1821. 

 His father, Anthony Carter, was a native of Vermont, born 

 Oct. 19, 1787 ; married Rachel Teter, — born in Tompkins 

 Co., N. Y., Sept. 22, 1791,— Aug. 19, 1807, and settled 

 in Tompkins Co., N. Y., with his parents about 1816. 

 The family, on account of famine in Vermont, left that 

 State, crossed Lake Champlain on the ice, and with a very 

 small amount of money, as the result of the sale of their 

 property, finally settled in their new home in the far west, 

 and were among the pioneers of Tompkins County. 



Her father, Peter Teter, came from New Jersey, was 

 about the first settler of Lansing, that county, built the 

 first mill, owned a large tract of land, became wealthy, and 

 died where he first settled on coming to the county. Both 

 grandfathers, Anthony Carter and Peter Teter, were soldiers 

 of the Revolutionary war. 



Anthony Carter was next youngest of five children of 

 the Carter family, settled in the town of Greenwood, 1830, 

 where the family resided nine years, and came to Canisteo, 

 purchasing, on Bennett Creek, two miles south of the vil- 

 lage, some one thousand and thirty-three acres of land, most 

 of which still remains in the family. 



He followed lumbering for many years of his life prior 

 to, and after coming to, Steuben County ; was an active, 

 enterprising, and thrifty business man. He was a man 

 characterized for his generosity, and did much in the early 

 days of the settlement of Greenwood to assist those more 

 in need of the comforts of life than his own family. Ho 

 died Dec. 8, 1857. His wife died April 7, 1863. 



Their children are Peter, Mrs. Uriah Douglass, Mrs. 

 William Langley, Mrs. George Brown, Daniel John, Mrs. 



Alvah Davis, Anthony, Calvin, Mrs. Lewns Cornell, Mrs. 

 James Fuller, George W., and Mrs. Hamilton Bartlett. 



John Carter remained at home until he was twenty-four 

 years of age, and worked on the farm and in the saw-mill. 

 His opportunities for book knowledge were very limited, 

 but his subsequent life has fully demonstrated the fact that 

 education does not all come from books, necessary economy, 

 privation, and self-reliance often laying the foundation for 

 opulence and a wide field of intelligence, reading, and 

 knowledge. 



In 1844, October 13, he married Catherine, daughter 

 of Erastus and Mary Stephens, of Canisteo. Her father 

 was grandson of Uriah Stephens, the first settler of the Can- 

 isteo Valley. She was born May 22, 1826. 



For twenty-five years after his marriage, Mr. Carter 

 carried on farming and lumbering, on a part of the farm 

 settled by his father in Canisteo, and in 1870 removed to 

 the village, where he has been engaged in erecting dwelling- 

 houses, some of which are among the most substantial and 

 elegant residences in the village. His life has been one of 

 constant activity, and to such enterprising and resolute men 

 as he Canisteo owes its business-like and thrifty appearance. 

 His fine hotel block, the most elegant building in the vil- 

 lage, is shown on another page of this work. 



Mr. Carter has given his life strictly to business, never 

 accepting the honors of office or its emoluments. He is 

 interested in the education of the rising generation, and a 

 liberal supporter of that and kindred interests. He is a 

 member of the Republican party, and encourages all enter- 

 prises of reform and local improvement in the village and 

 town. Their children are William T., Erastus A., Addie 

 A., Eva, and Mary L. 



A T O N". 



■H•►- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



Caton was formed from Painted Post, under the name 

 of " Wormly," on the 28th of March, 1829. On the 3d 

 of April, 1840, it was changed to its present name. It is 

 the southeast corner town of the county. Its surface is 

 elevated, quite level, and less broken by deep valleys than 

 any other town of the county, there being but a few small 

 streams, flowing northward. The extensive forests of this 

 town have aff'orded large quantities of lumber. Upon some 

 of the highest hills is found a coarse, silicious conglomerate, 

 which forms the bed of the coal measures. The soil is 

 chiefly a clayey and shaly loam. 



SETTLEMENT. 



Joseph and Charles Wolcott made a temporary settlement 

 in this town in 1814 ; but Isaac Rowley, from Bradford 

 Co., Pa., who located here in 1819, seems to have been the 

 first permanent settler. Stephen and Simeon Hurd settled 



in the town in 1821, Solomon Tarbox in 1822, and E. P. 

 Babcock, Edward Bobbins, and Henry Miner in 1823 ; Ab- 

 ner Gilbert, E. Bobbins, and Elias P. Babcock purchasing 

 4000 acres in the southeast part of the town, and Mr. Gil- 

 bert erecting a saw-mill at the outlet of the marsh the same 

 year. 



In 1824 a few men from the more eastern counties — 

 among whom were Ephraim Hill, Levi and Willis Gridley — 

 came, with their families, into the heavy -timbered hills of Ca- 

 ton, and located themselves among all the wild surroundings 

 of a backwoods life, taking at random their future farms, 

 where now their sons and grandsons are living the posses- 

 sors of well-tilled acres and surrounded with the homes of 

 industrious neighbors. The rough roads by which they 

 came have been changed to good, broad highways, leading 

 past the modern farm-houses which have replaced the log 

 house of the pioneer. The descendants of Mr. Hill are 

 now widely known as among the leading men of the town, 



